University of Wisconsin Geology Museum, Madison

It's free and has a lot packed into a small space. Pretty rock specimens, window into a lab, a demo on florescent rocks, tiny walk- through cave and a bun ch of fossils!!! A great way to pass an hour - or half an hour if your kids can't read and run ahead to gawk at a t-rex skull.

This small museum on the second floor of the geology building (a couple blocks from Camp Randall Stadium) provides a fascinating look at the rocks underneath your feet. It starts with a small exhibit on meteors and meteorites - including video of the 2010 meteor that exploded over southern Wisconsin and several examples of meteorites from that strike as well as a general discussion of the various types of meteors with again examples of the resulting meteorites from around the world. Next is an extensive display of minerals including many beautiful crystals, colors, etc. - indeed the example of pyrite "suns" naturally grown in a slab of black slate looks more like modern art than a natural specimen. Visitors are next led into a room equipped with a black light to show a wall full of examples minerals that glow in UV light - very 1960s. This room leads to another small room modeled after a cave to illustrate the difference between stalactites and stalagmites.